As determined as we were to sleep in this morning, I think we made it until 7am. This cabin (an inside on the back of Aloha Deck) is as quiet as a tomb, so we don’t hear any activity related to arrivals, just an occasional cart rolling in the Horizon Court above us. Very occasional. It’s no surprise that this is our favorite cabin location. And, frankly, I am far happier in an inside cabin with easy access to public decks than with a balcony all our own. Naturally, that our day starts with breakfast in Snobatini’s (aka Sabatini’s) keeps us from having too much of lie in. Three men (waiters) falling over each other to serve me, and two more men cooking for me. Living the dream, baby!
Fruit plate, decaf cappuccino and a mimosa in Sabatini’s. My usual.
But I shook things up a little with poached eggs, a huge treat. I’m a “dozen eggs a year”-type person.
We finally made it to the fitness center after breakfast. Sheila (a personal trainer) and I spent at least two hours a day there on our transpacific cruise in 2004. We also never once took an elevator in 31 days. Things have certainly changed in 19 years!
We had every intention of at least getting off the ship to walk around. In fact, when the Blue Bus to Mendenhall Glacier shut down recently (their visitor quota has been maxed for the season), we thought we’d instead take the Goldrush Tram to the lookout and do a little hiking up there. I was gobsmacked when we looked up the price of an adult ticket. It’s $50 this year. That’s insane. These are all things that, if this was our first and only visit to Juneau, we’d paid whatever price there was to do them. But we're cruising differently this time. It’s much more about relaxation and enjoying the ship. We’ve had a lot of layers of stress in our lives in the past 18 months or so. Almost like I’m an onion, I can start to feel them shedding away. It’s amazing.
That’s how we ended up not even leaving the ship today. We sat in a double lounger on the back of the Terrace Deck and fell asleep in about 10 seconds. The ship was so quiet and empty and the sun was so warm in a beautiful, cloudless sky. At some point we made it to Alfredos where we repeated our pizza from yesterday but tried a different Alaskan beer. My goal (because it’s important to have goals!) is to get through all of them. Today’s beer was Alaskan White, a wit (wheat) beer. It was also my only real drink of day. It didn’t take me long to burn out on the Princess Plus package, though we’re enjoying lots of Perriers. That’s one thing that hasn’t changed in 19 years. Fuzzy water still reigns supreme.
I walked around the ship this afternoon taking photos of the bar menus to publish on this blog. In doing that, I found my favorite elderflower Paloma on the menu in the Wheelhouse Bar. Maybe tomorrow I’ll have a taste for alcohol again. I didn’t even get a fresh juice from the juice bar this morning. I’m slipping. Must cruise harder!
Another Alfredos veggie pizza and making my way through the Alaskan beers
We knew before we even got into the dining room that tonight was Italian night, and it was a wonderful surprise to see Restaurant Manager Valentin preparing penne arribbiata. Just like the old days! In fact, we both said today that this cruise feels the most normal of any cruises we’ve taken since COVID. Finally!!
Mushroom and Truffle Arancini
Probably the only thing I’ve ordered not to my taste
Seafood antipasto
Penne Arrabbiata prepared in the dining room by Restaurant Manager Valentin
This brought with it a thousand memories, especially of Suttipong and Darko (we’re still in touch).
My first dessert!
Lemon meringue cheesecake
There was no show in the Princess Theater this evening. Instead, Libby Riddles of Iditarod fame gave a talk in the theater. We’ve seen her several times before, and decided to instead sit on the Terrace Deck to watch a spectacular sail away sunset after 9pm. Unlike at home, where the sun seems to drop in a minute, it hangs in the sky here forever. Some of the prettiest Alaska sunsets we’ve ever seen have been in Juneau.
At 8pm under a cloudless sky enjoying
the Terrace Deck. A lot of people had the same idea.
Juneau sunsets at sail away after beautiful weather days are the best!
The sun hangs in the sky forever.
It was 10pm before I typed the first word of this blog post, but, thankfully, I had been uploading pics throughout the day. The interface to WiFi in the Medallion app works intermittently. But using login.com in the browser address never fails. It’s doing everything I need to do with one plan on two devices. It’s far improved from what we experienced on the Majestic Princess in Alaska two years ago (we didn’t even purchase internet for the second of our B2B cruises than because it had been abysmal on the first) but the real test will be Glacier Bay National Park when everyone is on the ship and posting pics to social media. I’ll keep you posted.
Source: Princess Cruises
Source: Princess Cruises
Source: Princess Cruises
Source: Princess Cruises
